JEDDAH, 4 February 2005 — Two days after denying that there were no cases of dengue fever in Jeddah, Director of Health Affairs of Makkah region, Dr. Yasser Al-Ghamdi, confirmed that 10 new cases of dengue fever have been reported in the last few days.
Reports of cases of dengue fever have been circulating in the Arabic press. They were attributed to different sources at the Jeddah Health Affairs. The reports followed an announcement by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr. Khaled Merghalani, that four cases were detected in Makkah and none in Jeddah but that there was a strong possibility of new cases of dengue fever in Jeddah. “Dengue fever has always been present in Jeddah because of stagnant water, and new cases continue to be reported,” Dr. Merghalani told Arab News.
At a press conference, Dr. Al-Ghamdi said that the cases of dengue fever are more than the officially reported cases through hospitals and health centers because only the severe cases are being treated there while the others take care of their symptoms through the usual remedies. “Around 600 suspected cases of dengue fever have visited hospitals in 2004, 200 of them were confirmed,” he said.
In the meantime, Jeddah municipality is continuing with its spraying campaign of all the neighborhoods with any amount of stagnant water, flood drainage canal and the areas where random slaughtering occurred at the beginning of Eid and temporary animal stalls.
“This is the normal rate of infection in any place where there is dengue fever, but we want to raise people’s awareness and involve their cooperation with the municipality and the health affairs in combating and reducing the chances of breeding conditions for the mosquitoes that cause dengue fever,” said Dr. Merghalani.
